ASA GRAY: HIS LIFE AND WORK.* 



Now and then a man arises whose life and works are of 

 such magnitude that he shapes the intellectual growth of a 

 nation or a civilization, moulding and. turning thought into 

 a new channel. Charles Darwin, like Copernicus, advanced, 

 such revolutionary doctrines. As Copernicus taught the 

 world the now received system of astronomy, so Darwin 

 has taught the origin of species by Natural Selection. 

 Before Copernicus the world did not move it was per- 

 manent, fixed, central. So before Darwin the species which 

 exist on the earth Avere regarded as permanent and fixed, 

 each having been produced by a special creation. But 

 this belief is fast disappearing, and we are living to see 

 Darwin's teachings recognized not by the slow process 

 by which the Copernican system came to be accepted, but 

 with rapid strides due to the advanced thinkers of our time, 

 who see and grasp the "new thought" as men could not 

 do in the time of Copernicus. 



Copernicus drew upon himself and his theory the con- 

 demnation of the Church of Rome, which was not ob- 

 literated until 1821, two hundred and eighty -seven years 

 after it was issued ! And Galileo, who followed Copernicus 

 a century later, was imprisoned in the cells of the Inquisi- 

 tion for teaching the heretical doctrine that the earth 

 moves. Surely the world has advanced during the past 

 four centuries, so that in our time "heresy" simply meets 

 with disapproval and ridicule. 



It is not so many years since the Darwinian theory was 

 first promulgated, that we cannot remember the fierce 

 opposition and ridicule with which it was received, both by 

 the pulpit and tlie press. Then, it needed courage and 

 boldness to be its advocate. In this country, one of its 

 earliest disciples was Asa Gray, who bravely stepped to the 

 front of the battle and made havoc in the ranks of Darwin's 



*CoPYUiGHT, 1890, by James H. West. 



